DeNile
by indri
Summary: Spike and Joyce, late in Season Four.


TITLE: DeNile   
AUTHOR: Indri  
SUMMARY: Spike and Joyce, late in Season 4.  
SPOILERS: Some of this won't make sense unless you've seen early Season 5.  
RATING: PG.  
PART: 1 of 1. Complete.  
DISCLAIMER: The characters do not belong to me.   
FEEDBACK: archaeoindri@yahoo.com  
  
  
DeNile  
  
The fact of the matter is that Joyce Summers is clearly insane. It's  
amazing really, how normal she looks---there's none of the eye-rolling  
or wiggly hand movements he used to get with Dru. A fair amount of  
babbling, yeah, but that's almost cute. And yet she's daft as a brush,  
completely off her trolley, and stark raving bonkers with a cherry on  
top.  
  
Because there she is, running around the kitchen, fetching him  
snacks. Fetching _him_ snacks. Doesn't she remember hitting him with  
an axe? Or is that all bygones-be-bygones,  
you've-helped-save-the-world-often-enough-now, or maybe it's just  
at-least-you're-not-that-Angel-fellow? Because here she comes, back  
from the pantry, with a box of saltines and a bowl.  
  
"Ah, crackers!'' he says, because this has become a bit of a game for  
him these days, and by Christ he needs something to do. With the chip  
in his head there's not much fun to be had when there's nothing on  
telly. Demons to kill, when he finds them, and the joys of home  
decoration, but it's not as if he's planning on being in Sunnydale  
long, is it? He'll just get the sodding chip out of his head and be on  
his way. With a song in his heart and all that.  
  
He'd bumped into her first in a department store, where he'd been  
shoplifting CDs. She'd recognised him from three aisles away and came  
up to talk. Just visiting, was he? and he'd been forced to say no,  
he'd been in town for a while. And she'd done that sad little smile  
thing which meant "No-one comes to see me.'' And he thought, for a  
microsecond, about how little Joyce had been mentioned by the  
Slayerettes of late. Had Buffy gone to see her mum at all? So,  
slickly, and without a moment's further thought, he said that he  
should pop by. Well, it would piss off the slayer and he had to keep  
his invite up at the house because there was no telling if the Slayer  
had had it revoked. Besides, it was an opportunity for something, even  
if he wasn't sure quite what yet, anyway.  
  
Sympathy and hot chocolate. As he'd shaken her hand, he'd thought,  
gullible just doesn't cover it.  
  
He recalled the last time he'd just "popped by'' the house, looking  
for little Red's spellbook. He figured he could still get into the  
place, and he was glad to see a light on because he thought Joyce  
might be there. Then he could have a good meal to take the edge off  
the liquor, pick up the book and get back to the witch.  
  
But as he'd wobbled drunkenly in the doorway, something strange had  
happened. The bloody woman smiled. It was the warmth and sincerity of  
that welcome which did it. It wouldn't have happened to Angelus  
because the ponce liked to play tricks, befriend people for months  
before he killed them. Spike didn't have the patience and, frankly,  
when he turned up at a doorway he expected people to faint and scream  
and shout bloody blue murder. So he was just drunk enough to get  
thrown by her smile, as if she had bypassed all the hunt-kill-eat  
routines in his brain. And before he'd realised what had happened, he  
was sitting in the kitchen with a mug in his hand and was enjoying it  
quite a bit. He'd already bored every bartender from here to Rio about  
Dru and now he was going to bore her too.  
  
Still, turnabout's fair play, so here he is back in her kitchen again,  
getting bored by one of her stories this time. Oh yeah, all the fun  
you can have in a gallery!  
  
The microwave pings and she breaks off her story to ask if he takes  
milk, and he nods without thinking. "Just a spot.'' And then he  
immediately regrets it, because she's only got that crap tea in the  
house, the kind with cinnamon and orange peel and whatnot: "Constant  
Comment''. He thinks the constant comment must be that it's bleeding  
awful. If a minion ever brought him a mug of tea that bad---and they  
sometimes did---he'd pour it over them, and then pound their heads in  
with the kettle.  
  
"So you're settled in now?'' she asks him.  
  
"More or less. Done the dusting. Still picking up a few things here  
and there. My flatmate's dull, though.'' She looks at him  
curiously. "Got this skeleton in the sarcophagus. Still, anything's  
better than Xander.''  
  
She purses her lips and gives him this conspiratorial smile, as if  
he's said something wicked. See? Utterly mad. He wonders sometimes how  
she'd react if he told her of the sheer carnal pleasure he felt when  
he thought of killing her daughter. Who knows? The bint might just  
laugh it off.  
  
Because really, what sort of a mother doesn't notice that her kid's  
the slayer? _For three years?_ Just barmy! Mad as a hatter! And he's  
eaten a few milliners, so he should know.  
  
He has to admire her stubbornness, her wilful refusal to deal with the  
world. Because, sure, it's a tough break---your only kid being the  
slayer and all, with a post-puberty lifespan of a packet of  
crisps---but she must have to work for this level of denial. Not that  
Miss-High-and-Mighty lets her in on much, that's for sure. Joyce is  
always asking him what her daughter's up to, what the boyfriend's  
like, how much danger her little girl is in. And Spike, with a  
straight face, tells her that her daughter is spunky and resourceful  
and the best slayer he's ever seen. Because of course, if she wasn't  
she'd be dead and Spike would be happily drinking martinis (or  
whatever) with Dru while minions fetched him snack food and washed his  
shirts.  
  
(Except that it's begun to bother him, now that he's got too much time  
on his hands, that he could have killed the Slayer before. He'd had  
the opportunities. He had the fabled Gem of Amara on his finger,  
making him a god amongst vampires, and he'd done what, exactly? Hidden  
in the bushes on the Sunnydale campus and taunted the Slayer about her  
sex life---that made no sense at all. Or even that first time, when  
Joyce had hit him with the axe, he still could have lashed out, broken  
the woman's neck in an instant, drained Blondie in one go. Must just  
have been the shock of meeting a human with enough balls to get in a  
good hit. And besides, he'd always appreciated violence in women.)  
  
And hell, shouldn't Joyce have a life of her own, anyway, friends from  
work maybe, or chatty neighbours? There's never anyone else here when  
Spike comes over. How lonely exactly do you have to be before you  
start enjoying the company of your enemy, spending your evenings  
swapping anecdotes and doing the crosswords in the _USA Today_?  
  
Joyceworld: that's how he thinks of it, and when he steps over the  
threshold these days it's with the _Twilight Zone_ music in his  
head. "You are about to enter another dimension...'' She lives in her  
own little reality, a universe with but a passing resemblance to our  
own. It's a strange place. Slayers live long lives there and danger's  
always thwarted and Our Heroes always live to save the world another  
day. She'll get to have grandkids in Joyceworld and her daughter will  
bury her and not the other way 'round. Even Spike's not a villain in  
Joyceworld (that's the bit that always threatens to break him into  
laughter). He's some kind of sodding hero, friend to Slayers and  
protector of the weak. It's hilarious. She has just no idea. Why, he'd  
have to be out of his mind. 


End file.
